Transformation is an embodied, cellular process involving reclaiming rejected parts of the self necessary for wholeness. Re-integrating shadow material projected onto others is essential to the work: What could emerge if we reclaim this “other?”

‘It is often extremely difficult to recognize in ourselves the tendency to project unwanted emotions on to others…’ (Chodorow). Feelings of guilt and anxiety often accompany contact with this split-off, rejected part of the self. However, many of these aspects, unwanted in childhood (such as aggression and sexuality), are necessary for healthy adult functioning when the person is better equipped to handle them. Extreme projections lead to denying, demeaning, and even annihilating the other- contributing to sexism, racism, xenophobia, and warfare.

If these qualities can be brought to consciousness and re-integrated rather than simply being ‘acted-out’, the person’s sense of self and sphere of activity is increased and he or she is able to make better life choices. When this happens—through exploring previously forbidden movement behaviors, experiencing the feelings associated with them, and verbally owning the experience—there is a release of energy that was previously needed to maintain the dissociation and repression of these rejected qualities. Contacting shadow aspects in the psyche’s natural timing within a safe temenos allows parts of the self unconsciously held in the tissue to become freed up—energies essential for development and wholeness.

Authentic Movement, or embodied active imagination, is a simple yet powerful meditative and therapeutic approach that bridges body and psyche through expressive movement, inviting descent into the body and psyche within a safe environment. Shadow elements often emerge spontaneously through unconscious movement responses, gestures, voice tone, verbal expressions, breathing patterns and mood. These can, over time and with rapport, be reflected back by the analyst and experienced more consciously by the client.

This energy can have a profoundly transformative effect when experienced, differentiated, and integrated. The shadow may also represent positive elements within ourselves – “everything that is yet unborn or not yet conscious within us” (Bolen). We cannot yet “own” these but instead project or attribute them to someone whom we feel is able to do something that we “could never do.”

Exploring the body-level responses to the shadow provides a bridge to the unconscious, frees life energy essential for growth, and connects a person to a deeper sense of knowing, creativity, and wholeness.

Through lecture, movement, creative arts exploration, and discussion we will rediscover the light in the darkness, burnishing the gold we have shunned.